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== History ==
The roots of Brasserie Cantillon stretch back even further than the brewery’s officially recognized founding date of 1900. According to Van den Steen in [[Books#Geuze_.26_Kriek:_The_Secret_of_Lambic_Beer|''Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer'']], the forefather of the Cantillon brewing family was a grain merchant named Auguste whose son, Paul, had no intention of continuing his father’s craft. Auguste then began to search for a business that would suit his son’s brewing hobby. Since starting a brewery was too expensive, Paul Auguste made several attempts to take over breweries in the [[The_Language_of_Lambic#The_Town_of_Lembeek|Lembeek]] area. By 1894, Auguste had bought the Vandezande-Van Roy brewery located in Lembeek’s Hondzocht district.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>
By 1900, Paul Cantillon and his wife Marie Troch began a gueuze blending business in the industrial quarter of Cureghem which was part of the southern Brussels community of Anderlecht. The brewery was located in a very busy area near the Bruxelles-Midi train station, the Mons boulevard, and the canal that ran through the city. Jean-Pierre Van Roy, who wrote the forward to [[Books#La_Gueuze_gourmande|''La Gueuze Gourmande'']], calls the period between 1900 and 1937 the ''"première periode de la brasserie."'' During these first thirty-seven years, Cantillon never actually brewed a beer. Instead, they bought lambic from a variety of producers in the area to blend and sell on their own, considering Cantillon a ''biersteker'' (beer blender) and ''marchand de bières'' (beer merchant). They would house their beers at Gheudestraat 56-58, where the brewery is located today.<ref name=“LaGueuzeGourmande”>Nicole Darchambeau, [[Books#La Gueuze gourmande|La Gueuze gourmande]], 2006</ref>